Sexual Health Teams

Owned by Mohammad Al-Ubaydli
Last updated: Aug 22, 2024 by Hannah Johnson-Keck
5 min read

PKB is currently being utilised by sexual health teams in numerous regions throughout the UK. These teams have identified the following workflows as highly effective.

Sexual health clinic

When COVID-19 hit in March 2020, the team had to cease all walk-in appointments as quickly as possible. Still wanting to deliver the services to their patients and needing to replace all their face-to-face appointments with a virtual alternative, they came up with a new way to use PKB, which has worked so well for both patients and the team hasn't returned to their old way.

Delivering care through PKB using the secure messaging functionality gives patients and the team the ability to deliver care virtually through their personal health records.

  • Patients send secure messages to professionals, including images

  • Images do not have to be stored on local system to be shared with the clinical team

  • Removed apprehension about sharing images on a digital platform

  • Explanations given by professionals on how to send messages within PKB

  • Care delivered through PKB

  • No face-to-face appointments needed

Here, you can find comprehensive instructions on how to send a photo through PKB secure messaging in the PKB manual.

Workflow

When a patient contacts the team through PKB, the professional replies to the patient with:

  • Standard instructions on how to send an image

  • Pre-meeting questionnaire for triage

  • Patient has a Sexual Health ID (not NHS)

  • Data added under sexual health privacy label in PKB

  • No face-to-face appointment needed

When a sexual health team use secure messaging with patients, its important to check the privacy labels are set as Sexual health to reflect sexual health systems.

Additional benefits to the patients

  • More convenience for patients who no longer have to take time off work or arrange childcare

  • No travel costs for patients

  • 60% of patients in the satisfaction survey stated that they are happy to send photos securely via PKB

  • The ability to share their sexual health data discreetly and securely with the clinicians and healthcare professionals they choose

With patient and staff satisfaction high, the team will continue to build on their use of the platform to support patients to access sexual health services without stigma.

Sexual health minor procedures

Aim: To provide informed consent care plans to patients before the treatment appointment.

Workflow

The team administrator calls the patients, inviting them to a clinical appointment, and checks that the patients have registered with their PKB record.

The appointment is sent to the patient's PKB record, followed by the informed consent care plan which the patient completes at home before the appointment.

The care plan contains

  • Information on how to complete it

  • Pre collective information

  • Preparations they need to take before the appointment

  • Informed consent

  • Video with details of the procedure

  • And yes no section for patients to click through and save

Appointment

  • Healthcare professional goes into the patient's PKB record and reviews answers in the care plan

  • Healthcare professionals has reduced appointments from 30 to 20 minutes

  • Patients are informed and know what is going to happen during the appointment and any side effects they may have following the appointment

Appointment types where an informed consent care plan can be used

Key PKB features 

Questionnaires 

Patients can initiate a questionnaire by clicking Start Questionnaire on their homepage or directly within the NHS App. Once completed, the questionnaire can be sent to a professional or team.

Teams using the questionnaire tool can ensure the outcome of clinical reviews is recorded and the patient has a copy. Teams can also identify patients suitable for virtual appointments or pre-operative assessment questionnaires.

PKB's advanced questionnaire functionality

The features include:

  • Scoring and calculations

  • Branching, allowing patients to complete the parts of the questionnaire that are relevant to them

  • Coded fields questionnaires can be mapped to clinical codes

  • Patients can save drafts

  • Send questionnaires to patients who aren’t registered or already in your team

Questionnaire templates

Messaging

  • Patients have access to message their healthcare team (saving time on the phone)

  • The Admin team can triage messages. Either resolving or passing onto another speciality team

  • Universal Messaging is the ability for patients to message clinical and non-clinical teams

  • Team-based messaging allows teams to automatically receive secure messages and questionnaires as a group rather than as individuals

  • Patient initiated messaging

  • Ability to share videos, files and images securely

Library

  • Central trust library for advice, services and information

  • Disease and condition information with advice and resources

  • Treatment plans, for example, a rehab program with videos and advice a patient needs to watch and read each week

  • Details and links to National and local support groups and website

  • Professional alliance information

Care plans 

PKB have a care plan toolkit with examples of care plan templates used by teams. There is a process for teams to amend care plans or create new ones here. A selection of peri-operative care plans is below.

Add and view data

  • Patients can view hospitals and GP data where an integration with PKB has been set up

  • Data can include sharing blood tests, x-ray reports, clinic and appointment letters, appointments and discharge summaries 

  • Patients can add information themselves, including operations and conditions

  • Patients can track key measurements and add any symptoms related to their orthopaedic condition

Comms 

  • Provide clear information for patients on how to use PKB pre- and post-surgery and what support the teams provide digitally.

  • Comms to staff on the new clinical and patient digital pathways

Further information

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